It shifts the focus away from the toxic clumps of amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brain alongside Alzheimer's disease progression. The researchers looked at how amyloid-beta plaques (purple) affected sleep quality through brainwave frequencies. Brain tissue scans, showing the effects of immune cells being turned off (right) on microglia and amyloid plaques. This returned the headline finding: disabling the microglia reaction gave the Alzheimer's mice an extra two hours of sleep per night, extending their restorative sleep periods. The drug dosage had no effect on the amyloid-beta plaques, which were unchanged.